One of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film", writer-director Tze Chun makes "a fine feature debut" (The New York Times) with one of the most-awarded and best-reviewed films of the year. CHILDREN OF INVENTION, winner of 16 festival awards, is by turns humorous and heartbreaking, an "urgent, artful austerely poetic" (Variety) "edge-of-your-seat family drama" (Spout) that's both "powerfully moving and rigorously intelligent" (Boston Phoenix). After being evicted, hardworking single mom Elaine Cheng (Cindy Cheung, Lady in the Water) tries to maintain a normal life for her children, Raymond and Tina. Elaine juggles a number of jobs, including working for a questionable pyramid scheme. When Elaine doesn't return home one night, nobody knows the kids are home alone, and they are left to fend for themselves. As the days pass, Raymond, a budding inventor, realizes he needs to come up with a plan to take care of his little sister. Referencing both the mortgage meltdown and suburban Ponzi schemes, "the film finds delicate moments of beauty and grace as its child heroes are forced to make their way" (Filmmaker Magazine). Featuring "gifted child actors-off-the-charts, cute, refreshingly free of Hollywood precociousness" (LA Weekly), CHILDREN OF INVENTION is "as close to cinematic purity as one is likely to see this year" (Film Society of Lincoln Center), "a rueful homage to American dreams both wonderful and warped" (Village Voice).

Expand